Vaccinations, infections remain low

Vaccination rates for COVID-19, as well as infection rates, have slowed in southeastern Washington and north central Idaho over the past few months.

But health officials continue to urge people who are not vaccinated to join the ranks and warn that infections from the delta variant of the disease is just around the corner.

“Right now our case counts are pretty low,” said Chris Skidmore, director of Whitman County Public Health. The district added only one new positive test Monday, bringing the county total to 4,440.

“We’ve leveled off since the (Washington State University) students have left.”

During the school term, there was a major push to get eligible people vaccinated, he said, but that too has diminished since the beginning of summer.

“We got quite a few shots into arms but those efforts have tapered off,” Skidmore said. “We’re mainly doing pop-up clinics and having people go to their providers. We’re still getting shots into arms but not nearly the volume that we were initially.”

Skidmore said the official data shows Whitman County at the lower end of vaccination rates in the state, but that, also, has to do with the student population. When students come in to be vaccinated, they list their home addresses and counties and that does not show up on Whitman County’s tally.

“So (the data) shows us at below 40 percent but we’ve been doing some mapping and taking a deeper dive into the data and it should be more in the neighborhood of 50 percent of our population being vaccinated,” Skidmore said.

“We still have some pushback and still have folks that are hard-nosed, not wanting to get the vaccine. But they’re slowly coming around. Some of those groups of people are going to be a struggle to get them vaccinated, so it’s just going to take time. There’s no magic recipe or secret to get all those people vaccinated. They all have their own reasons, but I think other counties are struggling with it more than us.

“One of the things that has benefited us,” he added, “a lot of our elected officials refrained from politicizing the pandemic and that allowed professionals to do their job. That’s gone a long way to help us realize some of the success that we’ve seen.”

Public Health – Idaho North Central District reported 22 new COVID-19 cases Monday, the highest post-weekend total since 32 new cases were reported June 7.

Carole Moehrle, director of the health department, said the slight increase is not something to brush off but not a sign the area is sliding back into full-blown infection.

“Last week we had 10 cases on Monday so this is a few more than a week ago, but nothing alarming,” Moehrle said. “We’ve been so fortunate with our summer and the limited number of cases.”

She said she is not aware of any current hospitalizations because of COVID-19 and the St. Joseph Regional Medical Center website said there were no patients at the hospital being treated for the virus.

Moehrle said vaccination rates also remain sluggish, especially in Idaho County where only about 4,000 people — about a quarter of the county’s population — are fully vaccinated. That is the lowest percentage in the five north central Idaho counties, but not the lowest rate in the state.

“We could do better is truly how we’re looking at it,” Moehrle said. “People are making their own decisions at their own time when they feel it’s appropriate to get the vaccine or not. We respect that.”

Some of the reasons people have reported for not getting the vaccine, she added, include those who are waiting until they have enough friends and relatives who have been vaccinated to assure them it’s safe.

Others are hesitant to get any sort of vaccine, including annual flu shots.

“I think that will continue forever,” she said. “They just don’t think it’s the right thing to put in their body.

“It’s a personal choice and I totally respect their choices. If they’re concerned about being able to fight off the virus in case they get it, they should take extra precautions,” such as avoiding crowds, washing their hands often and, if they are sick, making sure they get medical attention and “stay at home for those few days making sure the sickness doesn’t get ahead of them.”

Although no cases of the delta variant have been reported in this area, Skidmore said it’s only a matter of time before someone local is likely diagnosed.

“We are concerned with delta and we’ve been tracking it across the state,” Skidmore said. “It’s slowly becoming the dominant variant and we anticipate that probably within the next two weeks, it will be the dominant variant in Washington state and the nation.”

Skidmore said when the delta variant is discovered here “it will probably be when the students come back. But we’re pretty confident the students will have a high percentage of them being vaccinated, so we’re just going to have to wait and see on that.”

Moehrle said she has not heard of anyone in Region 2 being infected with the delta variant.

“We are hearing that it’s marching across the country but I guess Idaho is protected because it’s rural, lots of open space and we’re not all huddled together in a big crowd,” she said.

Public Health’s 22 new cases Monday included one in Clearwater County, eight each in Idaho and Latah counties and five in Nez Perce County.

Both Whitman and Asotin counties reported one new infection each Monday. Garfield County did not update its website Monday.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare will hold a media briefing about COVID-19 in Idaho today at 1:30 p.m. PST. Health department officials will offer brief opening remarks and take questions from the media.

The general public can join the briefing as attendees in listen/watch-only mode by selecting the link: idhw.webex.com/idhw/onstage.

Hedberg may be contacted at kathyhedberg@gmail.com or (208) 983-2326.